Thursday, April 28, 2011

Ecofirst returns to the black in 3Q, boost from writeback

KUALA LUMPUR: ECOFIRST CONSOLIDATED BHD [] returned to the black in the third quarter ended Feb 28, 2011 with net profit of RM7.95 million compared with net loss of RM12.32 million.

It said on Thursday, April 28 the better performance was due to a RM32.4 million writeback of doubtful debt provisions less losses on revocation of PROPERTIES [] of RM20.5 million.

Rrevenue fell 46% to RM2.87 million from RM5.33 million. Earnings per share were 1.22 sen versus loss per share of 1.89 sen.

For the nine months, it reported net profit of RM2.41 million compared with net loss of RM19.51 million in the previous corresponding period. Revenue declined 29.8% to RM12.90 million from RM18.38 million.

Ecofirst said the group was undertaking a management revamp for its retail mall in Seri Kembangan to improve its performance.

'The development of two tower blocks of service apartments on top of the existing mall which is expected to commence by middle of this year, is also expected to augment improvement of the mall's performance,' it said.

The company said the CONSTRUCTION [] of the group's other retail mall in Segamat was expected to be completed in the first quarter of the next financial year (1Q ending Aug 31, 2011).

'We have so far received encouraging response on the leasing of retail space at the mall and are optimistic of achieving more than 85% occupancy by the time the mall is opened for business in the second quarter of the next financial year (ending Nov 30, 2011),' it said.

As for the production of iron ore via its investment in south Kalimantan, it said there would be a delay to the next financial year. The earlier plan was in the second half of this financial year ending May 31, 2011.

'The causes of delay are mainly due to relocation of processing site arising from local requirements and also rainy conditions which delayed the installation and commissioning of the machinery and processing equipment,' it said.

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